HB
240 by Rep. Kenny
Havard would allow legislative committees to interpose themselves in the
administrative contracting process, for those more than $5 million, to see
whether a contract is worth it and its implications, even as it already is part
of the Administrative Procedure Act. Technical amendments were to the House Appropriations
Committee offered and adopted without objection.
Opponents
from the Division of Administration noted that this added an unnecessary layer
of bureaucracy, despite several other vetting stops within both the executive
branch and Legislature, which has the effect of discouraging privatization and
in that respect, contrary to Havard’s assertion, was anti-privatization. It
also forcibly makes contractors to offer job opportunities to former state
employees into privatized operations, which are neither necessary nor appropriate
at all times. It also subjects privatization to additional scrutiny beyond tasks
done by government employees.
Rep.
Roy Burrell
wondered whether any follow-up was done to check on whether laid off employees
subsequently took on lower-paid jobs or had any job at all. They replied that
often this frees employees for better positions even in government.
In
closing, Havard cited one negative report on a contracted operation (not
mentioning similar negative audits of government performance by state-run
operations). The bill was adopted without objection.
DID
YOU KNOW?
HB
519 by Rep. Cameron
Henry was similar to HB 240, except that the limits were set at contracting
at $1 million and leases at $500,000. He said he was open to combining forces
with Havard, although he hadn’t known of that bill and so couldn’t comment on
any other exact differences. Vice Chairwoman state Rep. Simone Champagne
thought also there was even more oversight, which opponents agreed in that it
would add an extra year potentially to the agreement process.
No comments:
Post a Comment